A Christmas Carol (1942)
Director: Tom McKnight
Scrooge: Basil Rathbone
We now go back a few years from 1956 and "The Stingiest Man in Town" to 1942, when Basil Rathbone played Ebenezer Scrooge in an earlier adaptation of "A Christmas Carol." This was a 78 rpm album from Columbia Records.
I imagine this project got the green light due to the success that Decca Records had the year before with Ronald Colman's record set of the story.
I think the Colman version is still the most popular, but the Rathbone version is excellent and has stayed in print through various reissues up through CDs and streaming.
I think Basil Rathbone is as suited to play Scrooge as any actor ever. He just has a Victorian look and he's a commanding presence with a lot of acting chops.
This version of the record adds carols at the beginning and end, but the sound quality is good, so give a listen:
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